Therapists in the massage department and other professions related to healthcare often use SOAP notes to document client’s records. Massage SOAP notes templates, therefore, are very effective and critically important for a couple of reasons.
Why are they so important?
- The massage SOAP notes templates give the massage therapist a well-designed approach to assist in the facilitation of important massage sessions for their clients.
- The templates assist the massage therapist in creating some sort of outline for their massage sessions, ensuring that they use their time and that of their clients effectively.
- Massage SOAP templates often assist in giving a clear guideline to the massage therapists on how to deal with insurance companies and improve communication between their clients.
That discussed, what are SOAP notes?
SOAP is the acronym for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan.
S=Subjective
This is the point where clients’ complaints are documented. This information could include the location of the client’s pain, the frequency of that pain, and the intensity of the same. The message derived could be up for interpretation. Different clients may describe the same intensity of pain differently, such as “very painful” “manageably painful” or “slightly painful”.
O=Objective
This entails all kinds of information the massage therapist can gather through visual assessment and testing through massage. It’s arrived as objective since diverse massage therapists should have the ability to gather similar ideas.
A=Assessment
These are the outcomes of the session. You can document any outcome or limitation that your client may be going through, for instance, lack of flexibility and limited motion.
P=Plan
This means the course of treatment of the session you are currently handling, and any future recommendations you have regarding the treatment of the patient.
Tips for effective massage SOAP templates
The massage SOAP templates offer a wide variety of benefits. Let us look at a few tips for effective massage SOAP templates.
- Keep them brief unto the point
The best massage SOAP templates should be brief but include all the essential information regarding the patient. A precise template should allow for all the relevant information on the patients’ health records and should make no room for irrelevance. The templates should also allow for quick recording of info as massage therapists may have a little downtime in between sessions. It not only saves time but also effort on the side of the massage therapist.
- The template should allow for big and neat writing
Reading your handwriting is easy, but it would make sense if the template allows for neat and big handwriting. It allows for other massage therapists who handle the patient to follow up and pick it up from where you left, with much ease.
- The template should have universal abbreviations
Although massage therapy abbreviations are generally known by all professionals, this is dependent on workplaces. The template should easily explain the abbreviations, so there is a clear understanding even among different massage therapists handling the same patient.
Conclusion
Writing notes on paper can be tiresome, especially after a long day at work. Massage SOAP templates aim at helping you make comprehensive notes anywhere, as easy as on your phone. The templates also help to save time and space. They give you a rough idea of how your notes regarding the massage patient should look like, making your work easy. You are also able to create reminders and easily update your SOAP notes while using the massage SOAP notes templates.
